Cover; Half Title; Series Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction: The revolution of dignity and its drivers; Living together with a monster; The "humanist outliers"; Looking at humanism through an interdisciplinary lens; De hominis dignitate: the case of Poland; Notes; References; 1. The second renaissance in 20th-century Europe; The community of conscience; Intellectuals on trial; Oppositional humanism; The European 'Tao'; The totalitarian temptation da capo; Notes; References.

2. Re-enchanting modernity: Comparative perspectives on the legacy of 1968Modernity on trial: perspectives of East and West; The "Viet Kong of thought"; 1968 in Eastern Europe: the legacy of the Komandosi; Anatomies of totalitarian temptation; After utopia; Notes; References; 3. Friendship and revolution: The Eros and ethos of the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR); The Players; The "psychiatric opposition"; The republic of friendship; Inventing a parallel society; The anticlimax; Revolutions today: the "false prophecies of interconnection"?; Notes; References.

4. Three weddings and a funeral? The "dialogic revolutions" of 1980 and 1989The undead past; Culture as an incubator of revolutions: the nuptial roots of Solidarity; The cultural underbelly of the dialogic revolution; The clash of mythologies; The defeat of Solidarity?; Notes; References; 5. The power of the hinterland; The tragedy of anti-authoritarian clerks; Whipping the Hinterland; Homo sacer vs Homo humanistus; Lech Wałe?sa: a trickster of the hinterland; The neo-authoritarian soul of hinterland?; Conclusion: the era of hinterland?; Notes; References; 6. The power of Sanctum

Solidarnosć ́and Shakespeare: evil in the dialogue of temptationThe ambivalent anti-authoritarianism of the Polish Church; The "religion" of Marxism-Leninism; The philosopher and the devil: the intellectual metamorphosis of Leszek Kolakowski; The inventors of a modern Samaritanism; The alternative Catholicism of Father Tischner; From Sanctum to pandemonium?; Notes; References; 7. The power of women; Revolution of dignity and the "underground women"; The smithery of humanism; The anti-feminist femininity; "Keep your rosaries off our ovaries" or how to reclaim the revolution.

Wislawa Szymborska's post-gender humanismNotes; References; Epilogue; Index.

This book discusses the ongoing revolution of dignity in human history as the work of 'humanist outliers': small groups and individuals dedicated to compassionate social emancipation. It argues that anti-authoritarian revolutions like 1989's 'Autumn of the Nations' succeeded in large part due to cultural and political innovations springing from such small groups. The author explores the often ingenious ways in which these maladapted and liminal 'outliers' forged a cooperative and dialogic mindset among previously resentful and divided communities. Their strategies warrant closer scrutiny in the context of the ongoing 21st century revolution of dignity and efforts to (re)unite an ever more troubled and divided world.

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